Books In Science: The Quotable Darwin Arrives

Fans of Janet Browne's epic two-volume biography of Charles Darwin will not want to miss her new book, The Quotable Darwin (Princeton University Press), which features a broad selection of Darwin's personal and professional observations on life, liberty, and of course science.

Janet Browne, author of the two-volume biography of Charles Darwin.Harvard University

Browne, currently Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard, got her PhD from Imperial College London. And one of her first jobs was associate editor of the early volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, which put her in an ideal position to tackle the biography.

This new collection of quotations from Darwin's voluminous writings, according to Browne, digs into the historical records to show 'the remarkable contrasts of his life and times in his own words and in the words of his friends, contemporaries, and family.'

In print, Darwin was not much given to aphoristic turns of phrase, and he was cautious in the way he expressed his scientific ideas. There are examples of this caution here. However, his private letters and notebooks reveal his thoughts as bold and incisive. His affection for his friends and family is very evident in his correspondence, and he experienced many of the same upsets, family concerns, joy, and grief that other Victorians shared.

The contents are assembled in six parts: Darwin's early life; his marriage and scientific life; his masterpiece, The Origin of Species; writings on humanity; on himself; and finally on friends and family. Within each of these sections, Browne shows us his letters and writings on everything from his children, to his concerns and doubts about God and religion, his marriage, and on issues like slavery as the abolitionist movement arose in England.

For example, in this letter to his sister Emily Darwin of May 22, 1833, written while voyaging on The Beagle, Darwin writes:

I have watched how steadily the general feeling, as shown at elections, has been rising against Slavery.--What a proud thing for England, if she is the first European nation which utterly abolishes it.--I was told before leaving England, that after living in Slave countries: all my opinions would be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the Negros character.--it is impossible to see a negro & not feel kindly towards him; such cheerful, open honest expressions & such fine muscular bodies...

To his wife, Emma, on the untimely death of his daughter Anne at age ten in 1851:

She went to her final sleep most tranquilly, most sweetly at 12 oclock today. Our poor dear dear child has had a very short life but I trust happy, & God only knows what miseries might have been in store for her. She expired without a sigh. How desolate it makes one to think of her frank cordial manners. I am so thankful for the daguerreotype (photograph). I cannot remember ever seeing the dear child naughty. God bless her.'

And in spite of his growing doubts about the benevolence of a Creator who ordered a world in which so much suffering takes place among evolving species, Darwin wrote in 1860 to his friend, the American botanist Asa gray, "On the other hand I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe & especially the nature of man, & to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. Not that this notion at all satisfies me...."

The Quotable Darwin is available in hardcover and Kindle. Highly recommended.

I write about science, technology and how they affect the planet's hairless primates. In particular, how they affect the philosophies of said primates. I've written for The Wall Street Journal, New Scientist, The Boston Globe, Cosmos Magazine among others. My book, The Day ...